Photographs are amazing keepsakes alone, but there are special techniques which can enhance and spice up your pictures, making them even more unique. You do not have to be a professional photographer to use special effects or trick photography.

Even beginning photographers can shoot really amazing pictures that will require a second look. Learning these techniques is simple when you know the basics of photography, and the creative possibilities using the various techniques are endless. Here are just a few of the benefits offered by special effect photography.

Beginning Photographers Can Learn – You do not need to be a professional photographer to use effects or trick photography. It does however help to know the basics of photography such as shutter speed, aperture, and film speed. If you know the basics of photography and have adequate practice using your camera, then learning to do special effect photography is just learning the techniques used.

No Expensive Equipment Necessary – You can achieve special effects and trick photography techniques without spending excessive money on equipment. Any camera can be used if you know the special effects photography techniques.

Adds A Personal Touch To Photographs – If you want a photo to stand out, special effects and trick photography is the way to achieve this. Photographs which start conversations or require a second look, are just more fun to view sometimes, and with a little effort and practice, you can take the pictures everyone wants to see again.

Unleashes Your Creativity – Using your creativity through photography is exciting. You can capture a moment with time-lapse photography, or see the entire view through panoramic photography. Light painting can give your pictures a surreal look, and steel wool photography can make your pictures light up with sparks. You can capture the tiniest details with macro photography, and add more vivid color and detail using High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. The possibilities and combinations are endless, and only limited to your imagination.

Adds The Wow Factor To Photos – Adding these effects to your photography can be a conversation starter, or bring out details that the human eye cannot see. They can be shot for your own personal satisfaction, or for a certain event. If you want people to look at your photos in awe, this area of photography is an element to use. You may just spark an interest in someone else who would like to try using the techniques.

If you are bored with looking at the same photographs, and want to make them more unique, special effects and trick photography is simple to learn. Not only will it increase the use of your creativity, but it will also improve your photography skills by using the camera on various settings and in various environments.

Special effects and trick photography is not a secret photography method that only professionals know and use. Anyone with an interest in photography, who has the most basic photography skills can achieve brilliant and eye-catching shots with practice.

Creativity is part of the total photography process, and with special effects, you can show off your creativity to friends, or to the world and be proud of the amazing photographs that you have taken.

The majority of people who only take occasional photographs like the ones of family events, tend to leave their Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras on the default or automatic settings. If someone taught you how to use the manual settings to make cool photo effects would you then use the manual settings? If you left the shutter of your camera open for longer than normal and you were taking a picture of a moving cars’ tail lights, the picture you would end up with would have long red streaks of light. Which you may have done before but this time you knew why it happened and that you did it on purpose just to see what it looks like. Here is a major bonus, you don’t need a really expensive DSLR to make cool photo effects only one you can operate manually.

Having the imagination is of more benefit then having the best gear, as long as it’s a DSLR camera you’re good. Once someone shows you a certain thing on your camera you will be able to apply that knowledge to any photographs you take. Like with any skill once you get the fundamentals down pat, your imagination is your only limitation. Going back to the shutter speed, picture this, a moving swing with coloured lights and a shutter open longer than normal, I think that would look really awesome.

Or taking a picture of an object and then while the shutter is open you move a light, (like a flashlight) in a pattern, photographing the light trails, it’s called light painting, now that is a cool photo effect. Going with digital photography has the added benefit of not having expensive processing fees, so if you aren’t happy with something you delete it.

Another thing that you can do with the manual settings on your camera is HDR photography, another cool photo effect. You would use this technique to gain more detail than is possible with only one photo. Put your camera on a tripod and take 3 photo’s of the same space, at normal exposure, under exposed and over exposed to get the shadowed detail, and then you can use software to meld the images together creating a high dynamic range photograph with so much detail in the fore and back grounds and with definition that just pops.

You can use your camera to make cool photo effects such as 3D images. Your camera is capable of creating perspective illusions and even infra red to change the colour of typical photos making them look surreal. Your friends and family will be totally amazed and will want to know when you had the time to take a professional photography course.

There are many photo artists who use these cool photo effects in their art and you can learn to do this as well.

You got that right! You now have the option of making use of photo effects online to take the beauty of your old digital photographs up a whole notch. Believe it or not, but there are countless free online tools available these days that would make it possible for you to edit you images using a variety of cool photo effects. These effects can be used to amend photographs in such a manner that you can use them for social networking profiles, collages, and even greeting cards. The best part about these tools is that they are extremely easy to use and will make it possible for you to add a really nice edge to your shots. The best thing for you to do, if you want a personal opinion, is that of creating a collage using different images. Doing so is basically going to make it possible for you to blend your taste in photography, give it an appealing appearance and well, let the world see how creative you really are!

Do you want to preserve your old photographs in such a manner that they appear to be funkier? Well, your best bets are cool photo effects then! The best part about the tools that allow you to add photo effects is that there is no need for you to possess expert knowledge or experience in this field. seriously, even if you have no experience or knowledge, these tools would still make it possible for you to totally revamp your pictures.

Amongst the most commonly used photo effects these days are those that involve making photos appear to be old fashioned, or those that allow you to add a funky looking border to them. Oh, and did you know that you can also make yourself appear on a magazine cover through these? If you want to give out a gift to a close friend, then you can easily make a collage of your school or college days and get it framed for them! The only thing that you would need to have is that of high quality photos that meet a few specification. The formats that are commonly accepted by online photo effects tools are inclusive of .gif, .png, and .jpg. However, in case the photos that you have are not available in the required format, then don’t worry as you can use a number of online tools that allow you to change the format of your files. Now, just access a photo effects tool on the internet and upload your image on to it. Now, just work out which effect you are interested in, and start working on it. Believe it or not, but with just a few clicks, your photo shot is going to be totally revamped with an amazingly effective appearance! The only difficulty that you would have is that of deciding which photo effect you want to use – there’s so many of them out there that you are totally going to get overwhelmed by your choices!